Perhaps one of the toughest challenges facing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscribers is determining how to ensure the availability of your application and the protection of your critical data in the cloud. You’ve done your research, but find it hard to trust the lifeblood of your business to a SaaS provider who may be new to the market — even though their solution is innovative, cost-effective, and flexible. You’re concerned about their longevity and what would happen to your data and applications if they were to go out of business. Availability plays a key role in your decision when it comes to cloud computing and entrusting vital information to a SaaS provider. Your business relies on the ability to access your information when you need it most. Cloud computing offers a host of practical and financial benefits, but there are risks associated with entrusting control of your application and data to the cloud — risks that threaten your business continuity and your company’s overall livelihood. What assurance do you have that you’re properly protected? Are you confident that you’ll have access, independence, and control over your information in the event your provider goes out of business?
Industry Fact: 79% of SaaS providers do not guarantee application continuity to their subscribers.
Source: Softletter Research. “2013 Softletter SaaS Report.” 2013.
What if You Could...
With Iron Mountain’s SaaSProtect® Suite of Services, you can choose the level of protection that is right for your needs. Based on the criticality of the SaaS application and your risk tolerance, you decide what level of protection is best for you based on your recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO). Iron Mountain acts as a neutral, trusted third party who manages access rights to the data and applications and administers the SaaSProtect® agreement between the providers and subscribers.
Source Code Escrow and Verification offers you access to proprietary deposit materials defined by the parties such as source code, maintenance materials, and data when an escrow trigger occurs. Verification tests are available upon request to validate accuracy and completeness.
SaaSProtect® Backup offers continuous, automated online backup from your SaaS provider to Iron Mountain, where a virtual copy of the application and data are stored daily, and where access to your data only is available to you when an escrow trigger occurs.
SaaSProtect® Continuity offers continuous, automated online backup and virtual replication of the provider’s SaaS application and environment to Iron Mountain, where a restore-ready environment is always available to provide access to the application and data to you for up to 60 days when an escrow-like trigger occurs.
SaaSProtect® High Availability offers continuous, automated online backup, real-time virtual replication and one-to-one mirroring of the provider SaaS application and environment to Iron Mountain, where an always-turnedon, always-ready environment is available 24/7 — which means no downtime for you. Your SaaS provider can use advanced cloud-based disaster recovery services that enable a seamless failover to Iron Mountain should an unplanned outage occur, and failback to their primary environment once it’s available again. The Iron Mountain environment is also available to you for up to 60 days when an escrow trigger occurs.
With any of the services, you can also bolster your confidence by periodically verifying that your provider is continuously backing up the application and your data and replication the provider environment to Iron Mountain using SaaSProtect®.
By choosing Iron Mountain, you can have confidence knowing that a proven industry leader is taking care of your access rights to the application and your data should your provider go out of business or cease operations for a prolonged period of time.
What You Gain
NCC Group Software Resilience has acquired Iron Mountain’s Intellectual Property Management (IPM) business. For more information on the acquisition, please visit our dedicated information hub, or contact Iron Mountain IPM.
